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New avatar rules & dimensions: please no signature pics

Hi folks:

Many of you will have noticed that avatars are coming out at all sorts of sizes on the board. This is due to a software update I made to the board. We need to run the latest version to keep security elements up to date and avoid being hacked, but unfortunately neither of the two add-on programmes for this board that automatically resize avatars will work with the new board version.

So if people have avatars that are now very wide (eg wider than mine which you can see at the left -- that is the maximum width size), people need to take the fairly simple step of resizing their avatars and then relinking to them in their profile. I've explained how to do this here, along with the right sizing:

I chose the small image size on Flickr as a matter of convenience for people as if you put your image there (it's a free account), you can then just get the code for the small size, which is a standard width (you click the 'different sizes' text on the right of your picture in the gallery). You don't have to do any resizing yourself. But you can also resize on your own computer or use another service where you can resize the image to the right dimensions. You can pick some smaller sizes too.

Note that the size is a bit larger than the old size I set for the board. If the resize programme gets updated I'll add it back in eventually.

If members feel the size is a bit too large, then we can set a smaller size and use photobucket or the thumbnail/square sizes. I'll put up a poll in a week or two when everyone has had the chance to get used to seeing the different sizes and think about it!

Karlin

Edited to add:

PS Please don't use signature pics -- pics in sigs always are controversial on boards as some people love them and some really hate them and for this reason sigs are often banned completely. I like text sigs however so am leaving them on. Instead, I've activated avatars. The point of having avatars on this board is that everyone can use a pic they love with their posts, and have them a consistent size. There are four photo gallery sections too which give lots of opportunities for sharing our favourite images too!

Re: New avatar rules and dimensions:

Note that the size is a bit larger than the old size I set for the board. If the resize programme gets updated I'll add it back in eventually.

If members feel the size is a bit too large, then we can set a smaller size and use photobucket or the thumbnail/square sizes.

oh yeah huh--that's why the graphics look sharper they're bigger. well, i know what my vote is going to be--i like how the avatars look, more puppy dog detail showing. but i don't know if this makes it take longer to load pages for people on dial up. that would be an important consideration, i think.

Oh no, you're fine. You can see by other avatars in the column (including mine) that yours is actually slightly smaller than the widest width. I've added a little more explanation in my first post that this only applies to avatars WIDER than mine currently is, as mine is the maximum width now. Some people had linked to really big pics as they were automatically resized before.

Thanks all for sorting this so quickly. I know it was a bit of a pain but I tried to do the easiest possible set of options. icon_thumbsup